Tension between President Donald Trump and former Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Must escalated Thursday with two exchanging words over the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” that Musk opposes.
At an unrelated news conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump said he was disappointed in his former top aide for criticizing the bill.
“I’m very disappointed because Elon knew the inner workings of this bill better than almost anybody sitting here,” Trump said. “He had no problem with it. All of a sudden he had a problem and he only developed the problem when he found out that we’re going to have to cut the EV mandate because that’s billions and billions of dollars, and it really is unfair.”
Musk is the billionaire owner of EV manufacturer Tesla.
Responding to a video of Trump’s comments posted on X, the social media site Musk also owns, Musk said the president was wrong.
“False, this bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!” Musk wrote.
Musk previously criticized the bill for adding to the federal debt, saying it would undo all the work he and his DOGE team did to cut wasteful government spending.
“I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore,” Musk wrote on X earlier this week. “This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”
The Congressional Budget Office has said that while the proposed budget cuts spending in various areas, it will still ultimately add $2.4 trillion to the federal deficit.
Trump said again Thursday that the CBO is “which is run by Democrats,” is wrong because it refused to include $2.8 trillion over 10 years into budget calculations.
As for he and Musk, Trump said he doesn’t know what the future holds.
“Elon and I had a great relationship,” Trump said. “I don’t know if we will anymore.”
